Intro to Consumer Product Career Path Blog

I am Siva Muthukrishnan, a Scientist at the Fabric and Home Care Business of The Procter & Gamble Company in Cincinnati, USA.  As this is my first venture at writing a blog with a career focus, I will try to share some stories that might add perspectives to your career. I am very excited to be a blogger at Bio Careers, and I look forward to both contributing and learning through this blogging expedition. Although I hold a PhD in Chemistry, I have worked in several aspects of Protein Chemistry and Enzymatic Chemistry and, hence, I consider myself part of the Biosciences community also.

I was born and raised in Chennai, India where I studied Chemistry, and earned a B.Sc. and M.Sc. Following that, as a Junior Research Fellow of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India, I carried out research in Catalysis and Chemical Ecology for the next few years. Then I moved to the United States and pursued my PhD at the University of Cincinnati in Physical Organic Chemistry followed by a three year Post-Doctoral experience in Bio-Physical and Computational Chemistry at The Ohio State University. 

Having carried out research in two different Countries, in academia and in industry, I have observed several similarities and dissimilarities in the research cultures across the board. I believe that understanding these might have profound and positive impact on your own career. 

A few aspects like the Scientific methods and logic are common across disciplines and culture, yet paradoxically Science remains a subjective objectivity.  When was the last time that you had a new idea for improving an experiment in the lab that came from sitting down with a paper and pencil and logically thinking through every step? Now compare this with an “Aah” moment that you experienced while taking a walk or while expressing your talent as a “bathroom singer” that changed the way you thought of an experiment. Most of us have had both types of experiences at different points of our careers. Isn’t this really an amazing point to ponder about? As I sign off, I thought I would let you go with these questions and return next month to discuss more on this aspect of research and make connections on to how these influence one’s career. Thank you for reading my blog and thanks to Bio Careers for the opportunity.  

Disclaimer: Any opinions I express in my current and forthcoming blogs are my own and it does not represent my company (P&G) or any organizations that I have worked in the past, nor do they tantamount to any legal advice/opinion.